The Azalea Bruin 8th grade basketball team, coming off of a big win against Smith River at Smith River Wednesday night, took on a tough North Bend team Thursday evening.
The AZ bruins boys faced off with a noticeably tall North Bend team that made the most of their height advantage early, cleaning the boards of missed shots and forcing the AZ Bruins to change their shots in the lane.
AZ Bruin guard Kyler Christensen #25 kept the Bruins in the game early, hitting a 3 pointer, a basket and 1 of 2 from the line for 6 of the AZ Bruins 12 points in the first quarter. Evan Orman #45, Wyatt Harms #32 and Austin Dietrich #20 also hit buckets for the Bruins. But North Bend outscored the AZ Bruins in the first and took a 12-16 lead into the second.
During the break, AZ Bruin coach Jason Fulton made some adjustments and drew up defense. After the AZ Bruin slow start, the Bruin defense applied a press that slowed North Bend and forced them into set offense plays. Again Christensen #25 was big hitting three buckets for 6 points. Jon Rivas #35 hit for 4 points and Ethan Orman #43 hit a 3 pointer as the AZ Bruin defense held North Bend to just 10 points in the period.
Sitting at 25-26 to start the second period, North Bend came out in the 3rd and focused on restarting their game plan of shut down defense and running on the AZ Bruins. The AZ Bruins fought valiantly in the paint, blocking out, blocking shots, and challenging on the boards. Evan Orman #45 led AZ Bruins scorers with a 3 pointer and a bucket for 5 points. Jaylen Monkman got himself into the scorebook hitting a pair of basket for 4 points. But the AZ Bruins could only put together 10 points in the 3rd as North Bend put up 20 in the period taking a 35-46 lead into the final period.
In the final period, the AZ Bruins battled down low, but North Bend was just too tall. Kyler Christensen #25 led all AZ Bruin scorers with 12 points on the night with four baskets, a 3 pointer, and a free throw as the AZ Bruins fell 57-43.
Talking with Azalea Bruin head coach Jason Fulton after the game he said “The kids played hard tonight. We faced a well disciplined team that just happened to also be very tall. We saw some very positive work from the kids attacking the basket and team defense. We will be back in the gym working on things to better our skills.”
